Favorite Roscoe/ "Beautitul Girls?"

[After Eight]

Posted: 10/25/11 at 10:31pm

"Beautiful Girls" is my favorite song in Follies, and Roscoe my favorite character in the show, along with Dimitri Weismann, Young Heidi, and Margie.

I was wondering whose version of the song people here prefer.

My own favorite is Arthur Rubin's, of Lincoln Center and Encores.

Now this is one amazing performer.

[MermansMan]

Posted: 10/25/11 at 10:42pm

I favor Vahan Khanzadian and the Papermill Cast.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/25/11 at 11:00pm

My favorite characters are Kevin the waiter, Dee Dee West and Max Deems.

[After Eight]

Posted: 10/25/11 at 11:13pm

"My favorite characters are Kevin the waiter, Dee Dee West and Max Deems."

Mmm.... Interesting.

So who's your favorite Roscoe?

[SondheimFan5]

Posted: 10/25/11 at 11:43pm

Arthur Rubin does something magical with the piece.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/26/11 at 12:48am

I have to admit that in all my forty years of obsessing on Follies, I have never once paused to consider who my favorite Roscoe was.

Never once.

[ljay889]

Posted: 10/26/11 at 12:55am

My favorite character is Weismann's girlfriend from the Chicago production.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/26/11 at 7:46am

Here's a strange one from the Berlin production...with a young Roscoe and a the kind of endless staircase they used to have in MGM movie musicals:

http://youtu.be/fnAneQudLxQ

[After Eight]

Posted: 10/26/11 at 8:30am

Pal Joey,

Thanks for the clip. Strange is indeed the word.

This Roscoe has overtones of the MC in Cabaret. A little creepy. But the ladies and set look great. The orchestra sounds great, too.

[FrauleinKost]

Posted: 10/26/11 at 8:37am

best thread ever.

My favorite character is the waiter that Sally hands her invitation to after she makes her entrance.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/26/11 at 8:52am

This is going to be a lovely thread. I'm so glad I came. What we need...is a drink.

[SondheimFan5]

Posted: 10/26/11 at 9:07am

My favorite character in Follies is Harry the doorman. He's not actually in the show, they just sing about him.

"Big"
"Fat"
"Young"
"Bald"
"HARRY!"
"YEAH!"

[HistoryBoy2]

Posted: 10/26/11 at 9:32am

What's a Follies?

[BroadwayFan12]

Posted: 10/26/11 at 10:13am

My favorite character is a toss-up between Tom and Tim.

[FrauleinKost]

Posted: 10/26/11 at 10:28am

I also love Tony, the owner of the dancing and dining establishment that the foursome would frequent back in '41.

[FrauleinKost]

Posted: 10/26/11 at 10:39am

I want to see/hear more from that German production!! I love hearing scores sung in other languages...

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 10/26/11 at 10:42am

In a show filled with stilted and awkward dialogue, Weismann's dialogue is particularly stilted and awkward, and rarely is it more stilted and awkward than when he refers to "the inevitable Roscoe."

...


It's mad awks.

[FrauleinKost]

Posted: 10/26/11 at 10:49am

I have a question--when was the line "there's a band, free food and drink" changed to "there's a band, food and drink"? It's in the original, but not sure after that (all my Follies stuff is in NY, while I am at the moment in DC)...

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/26/11 at 1:21pm

Probably for the latest revival. They seem to have gone back to the original script and excised every other line.

That German production is cuh-razy. Stella Deems is split into two characters, played by twins, the order of the Loveland songs is all different, Eartha Kitt always speaks English while everyone else always speaks German. Cuh. Razy.

I forgot to mention my other favorite character is Eddie, the son Phyllis and Ben never had.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/26/11 at 1:39pm

I want to know what happened to Hattie's 11-year-old nephew Jerome, who reads all of Ben's speeches. What kind of 11-year-old reads a foundation president's speeches?

And what about the book that Ben wrote on "Wilson," which Buddy hasn't read yet. Woodrow, presumably...was Ben for him or against him?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/26/11 at 1:50pm

And this stage direction and single line from the 1971 script:

WILL WHEELER, sixtyish and portly, does a cartwheel for a photographer.

WILLY WHEELER: I keep my hand in. I keep working.

===

The part was played by Fred Kelly, who was Gene Kelly's brother.

[FrauleinKost]

Posted: 10/26/11 at 1:55pm

I've always really admired Jack, the drummer that Phyllis has a fling with.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/26/11 at 1:56pm

And jack, Phyllis's drummer-lover who loved the birthmark under her left breast. When he kissed her there, "one" felt it difficult to breathe.

What happened to Jack?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/26/11 at 2:01pm

He tried to make off with the silver (once valued at $30,000, but now known to be valued as high as $60,000) but apparently took Phyllis's birthmark instead, since she hasn't mentioned it since the 70s.

What happened to Phyllis's wringing wet panties? Why does she no longer talk about those?

#originalscriptstillthebest
Updated On: 10/26/11 at 02:01 PM

[SondheimFan5]

Posted: 10/26/11 at 2:02pm

they changed it to "there's music, food and drink" for this revival for Broadway (because there's a 'piano' onstage for Beautiful Girls). Also changed "my wife, she's a cute blonde" to "strawberry blonde" and Carlotta's "and 1800 people just fell apart" to "and 1800 people laughed their arses off." Don't understand the last change -- why??